The present invention relates to a new tape cassette and a new cassette holder, and particularly to a technique capable of eliminating sticking of a tape-like recording medium on a cassette shell and/or a lid, thereby preventing occurrence of tape jamming at the time of cassette loading or tape loading.
Along with a tendency toward higher recording density, tape cassettes have been required to prevent adhesion of dust on a tape-like recording medium and adhesion of fat on the recording medium due to the contact of operator""s fingers therewith, and to meet such a requirement, there has been disclosed techniques in which a portion, exposed from a shell of the tape cassette, of the recording medium is covered with a lid in a non-loading state of the tape cassette in a tape drive apparatus.
According to one of the above techniques, the front side of the recording medium is covered with a front lid and the rear side thereof is covered with a back lid, and at the time of cassette loading, the front lid is turned upward at about 90xc2x0 to be opened and the back lid is moved nearly obliquely upward by using a cam or the like to be opened, to thereby expose the recording medium.
In such a tape cassette, since the cassette shell has been generally made from a synthetic resin, the front and the back lids have been also made from the synthetic resin.
The above-described related art tape cassette, however, has a problem. In this tape cassette, at the time of lid opening, the front lid is moved upward at about 90xc2x0 and the back lid is moved nearly obliquely upward by using a cam or the like, to be thus separated from a tape-like recording medium. At this time, if the front lid and/or the back lid are electrically charged, they are opened in a state in which the recording medium is stuck on the front lid and/or the back lid. As a result, the recording medium is loosened to be entangled inside the lid, or even if not entangled, the recording medium is partially drawn by the lid to be excessively extracted from the interior of the cassette shell, to cause an accident such as so-called tape jamming at the time of cassette loading or tape loading.
An object of the present invention is to provide a tape cassette and a cassette holder, which are capable of preventing occurrence of tape jamming liable to occur at the time of cassette loading or tape loading performed by insertion of a tape cassette having a front lid and a back lid in a cassette holder.
To achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape cassette in which a mouth portion opened forward, upward, and downward is provided in a front portion of a cassette shell containing tape reels around which a tape-like magnetic recording medium is wound, and part of the tape-like recording medium is positioned so as to cross the front end of the mouth portion, the tape cassette including: a front lid positioned on the front side of part of the tape-like recording medium positioned so as to cross the front end of the mouth portion; a slider movable forward and rearward, the slider being provided on the cassette shell; and a back lid positioned on the rear side of part of the tape-like recording medium positioned so as to cross the front end of the mouth portion, the back lid being separated rearward from the tape-like recording medium along with rearward movement of the slider; wherein the back lid is supported on the slider; and each of the slider and the back lid is made from a good conductor.
With this configuration, since the slider and the back lid made from good conductors are supported on the cassette shell made from a synthetic resin, the cassette shell is less electrically charged. As a result, it is possible to prevent the sticking of a tape-like recording medium from being stuck on the front lid and the back lid at the time of opening of these lids, and hence to prevent occurrence of tape jamming liable to occur at the time of cassette loading or tape loading.
The back lid is preferably formed integrally with the slider. With this configuration, it is possible to significantly simplify the structure for supporting the back lid on the slider, and to suppress occurrence of failure and breakage of the back lid.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cassette holder, movably provided on a chassis of a tape drive apparatus, for holding a tape cassette including a cassette shell provided with a slider movable forward and rearward, and loading the tape cassette to a specific loading position of the tape drive apparatus, the cassette holder including: a contact member to be brought into contact with the slider of the tape cassette held by the cassette holder; wherein each of the contact member and the cassette holder is made from a good conductor.
With this configuration, even if the tape cassette is electrically charged, since the contact member being in contact with the tape cassette and the cassette holder are made from good conductors, it is possible to effectively eliminate, that is, effectively ground the electric charges of the tape cassette to the chassis via the contact member and the cassette holder, and hence to prevent the cassette shell, the front lid, and the back lid from being electrically charged. As a result, it is possible to prevent the sticking of a tape-like recording medium from being stuck on the front lid and the back lid at the time of opening of these lids, and hence to prevent occurrence of tape jamming liable to occur at the time of cassette loading or tape loading.
The contact member is preferably a cassette pressing spring for pressing the tape cassette on the chassis at the loading position. With this configuration, it is possible to significantly simplify the structure for supporting the back lid on the slider, and to suppress occurrence of failure and breakage of the back lid.